The West Africa Examination Council (WAEC) has suspended 13 Senior Secondary Schools in Gombe State for four years over examination malpractices.
The defaulting schools were fined N500,000.00 each for committing the offence.
Alhaji Ali Yaya, Director of Examination, Gombe State Ministry of Education,stated this during a recent meeting with all Principals of secondary schools in the state and the ministry.
He lamented that the development was a major setback in the ministry’s effort to improve the education sector in the state.
He explained that examination malpractice is currently the major challenge facing senior secondary schools in the state and warned that it must be addressed to avert more schools from being de-recognised by the examination body.
He said:“From 2018 to 2020, seven of our public senior secondary schools were found to be involved in examination malpractices which led to their de-recognition by the WAEC.Similarly in 2022, the Ministry received a fresh set of six schools that committed the same offence and they were also de-recognised with a penalty of N500,000 fine per school payable to WAEC.”
He said, the menace of examinations malpractice had impacted negatively on the overall student’s performance in 2022 Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (SSCE) final results.
“The percentage of 2022 result was 55.6 per cent as against 79.5 per cent for 2021 and this is in connection with the examination malpractice recorded in six of our schools”, disclosed
Yaya said that the Examination Directorate of the Ministry had issued a warning to all principals in all schools to stay away from examination malpractice of any forms.
“Any principal found wanting again in any form of examination malpractices will be seriously punished and the penalty should be paid by the school”,he said.
